Live review: The Avett Brothers benefit for Terra Nova Farm at the Crystal Ballroom

The poster for last night's show by Portland artist Jeremy Okai Davis.

I kind of want to lie to you and tell you the Avett Brothers were awful last night -- falling down drunk messes of off-key sloppiness. Lethargic. Dull. That'd be the kind thing to do, because then you wouldn't feel like you missed something special.

But you missed something special. Playing a tossed-together-on-short-notice benefit for the Terra Nova Community Farm, the Avett Brothers, who were just passing through town and looking for a gig, found another gear beyond even their standard overdrive and played probably the show of the year last night at the Crystal Ballroom.

They limited the size of the crowd to 500, sold it out, and then attacked. I'd say it was perfect from the opening notes of the old local standard "Portland Town" to the passionate finishing touch of "I and Love and You," but that'd be wrong.

It was perfect from the moment Seth Avett joined Langhorne Slim for the first song of Langhorne's opening set and then stepped off stage to be replaced by Black Prairie's Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee and Annalisa Tornfelt. Because Langhorne, who recently moved here, couldn't fly his band out for the show.

Seeing the Avett Brothers in 2010 has to be a little like what seeing Springsteen was like in the late 70s, early 80s. They're that good.

As I revere Springsteen, I grappled with the audacity of that statement and have tried since then to walk back, at least in my head. After last night, forget about it. They're that good.

Saying someone's the best at playing live music, or making music in general, is a subjective exercise. There's no way to keep score. We like what we like, and don't like what we don't like.

But if you're talking about the best live shows in 2010, and you don't talk about the Avett Brothers, you haven't seen the Avett Brothers.

Then we have to consider the simple decency of last night's gig. Not only did they want to play another Portland show, a smaller Portland show than Edgefield, but they wanted to do a benefit.

The McMenamins folks knew of the Terra Nova Farm, and they pitched that to the Avetts and it was exactly the kind of operation the band wanted to get behind. As thanks, the high school kids who work the farm gathered Monday afternoon and prepared a pre-show meal for the band and crew, about 20 in all.

Terra Nova hadn't been planning on a fundraiser, hadn't been looking for a fundraiser, was going to continue to operate with the tools it had an the resources it had and do the best it could.

Now they'll be able to buy new tools, better tools and there's talk of endowing a scholarship to help students as they move on to college. And they're an impressive group of kids. I was chatting with them before the show.

Without overdoing this more than I already have: The world sucks a lot lately. It sucked a lot less last night at the Crystal Ballroom. Sincerity beat irony. Passion and joy defeated anger and fear. Fun won.

You can check out the setlist and see what Avett fans are saying right here.